Jodi L. Merriday is one of the most provocative and colorful poetic vocalist to emerge in her generation. She is also a scholar of African-American aesthetics and culture. She identifies her vocal canvas as jazz and aspires to create narrative bodies of work that provoke consciousness, deliberation and love.

Jodi L. Merriday's current work, “Unlettered” integrates spoken word, blues, soul and crunk into a jazz vocal textile. Her new works have pivoted her to the forefront of the discourse on post-modern jazz and African-American music. Recent notable lecture/performances include: Southern Illinois University's “Black Women in American History and Culture” Celebration, The National Black Arts Festival's “Interpretations: Black Visual Art Past, Present and Future” and the Atlanta Jazz Festival as a main stage performer.

Her first independently released CD, “Sundance” was asserted by jazz and poetry enthusiasts to be, “one of the most innovative projects of the new millennium”. Kelly Vance described her contributions to twice Grammy nominated Russell Gunn's Ethnomusicology 3 {performing “Strange Fruit” and her original, “Stranger Fruit”} as a “stark, bitter condemnation of lynching with superb contemporary spoken word”.

Jodi Merriday was awarded a Doctorate in African-American Studies by Temple University in 2006. Her dissertation, “Hip Hop HerStory: Women in Hip Hop Cultural Production and Music from Margins to Equity” is one of the first scholarly undertakings of its magnitude on women in Hip Hop. Jodi's academic body of work is centered in an exploration of music and the narrative of women as agents of social change and transformation.

Jodi worked for two years as an Assistant Professor of History at Gordon College where she taught US History, African Diaspora and African-American Experience. She also taught for 7 years at Spelman College in the Departments of Music, Sociology and African Diaspora where she taught Africans in the Diaspora and World, American Popular Music, African-American Film, Intro to Sociology, Social Problems, Hip Hop HERStory and Dialogue across Difference. She has also taught as a Lecturer at Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, and Community College of Philadelphia. She has received numerous awards and distinctions for her work and promises to make artistic and academic contributions for years to come.